Generally, after a human dies, muscles of his or her body parts become flaccid so that, for example, rectum contents including residual feces and body fluids may leak through the anus or, if a female, internal contents may also leak from the vagina. If internal contents thus leak from body cavities, this is hygienically undesirable and affects the later operations such as body transport. Prevention of leakage of internal contents is conventionally implemented by plugging body cavities with a plug member, for example, as disclosed in Patent Document 1.
The plug member in Patent Document 1 is formed by sheathing with a water-soluble sheet a column made of water-swellable fibers that absorb water to swell and applying a lubricant to the sheet surface. In using the plug member, for example, for an anus, the treatment person puts one longitudinal end of the column on the anus and then pushes the other end thereof in the direction of insertion with his or her finger. Thus, the column is inserted, together with the sheet, in the rectum by the action of the lubricant. When the column is inserted in the rectum together with the sheet, the sheet dissolves in water in internal contents so that the water is absorbed into fibers of the column. The fibers having absorbed the water swell to expand the diameter of the column. The expanded column comes into tight contact with the inner wall of the rectum to plug the rectum, thereby preventing the leakage of internal contents through the anus.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-111830 (Page 3, Page 4, FIG. 1 and FIG. 2)